Tag-Archive for ◊ childhood ◊

One of the biggest YAY’s I’ve ever YAY’ed!!!
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• Friday, July 23rd, 2010

It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! It’s off!!!!! ZOMG IT’S FINALLY GONE!

As of 3:30 this afternoon, the god-awful permanent retainer that had been cemented to my six front bottom teeth is finally GONE. 18 god-awful years of that thing sitting slightly crooked on the back of my teeth, just barely visible above one tooth, constantly sitting against my tongue, constantly feeling gross despite carefully brushing it…

IT HAS FINALLY BEEN REMOVED.

Here’s the thing – I didn’t know it was going to be put in there in the first place. Literally NO ONE explained this was going to happen. I went in for what I thought was a checkup on my removable retainer about a week or so after my braces came off (and to check up on the site), and suddenly I’m fitted with this god-awful thing. And the kicker – NO ONE WOULD TELL ME WHY IT WAS IN THERE. No one. I asked my orthodontist. I’ve asked three dentists – not a single person would give me an answer besides “well, it’s there for a reason.”

I never understood what that reason was – it was on the six teeth that had never needed to move. Those six teeth were the ones that were actually STRAIGHT to begin with when I was a kid!

Today Erich and I had mutual appointments to get fillings done. He went first, and when he was in the chair, he asked the dentist if she could consider taking the thing out because it annoyed me all the time. When I got into the chair, she did the filling, and then she mentions it – asks me if I want it out. Oh HELL yes. And a half-hour later, it was reality.

For the first time since I was 12 years old, I have no wires in my mouth. It feels awesome and amazing and incredibly weird. I keep running my tongue over my teeth where the wire should be (because I was constantly worrying at the thing for 18 fucking years) – and there’s nothing there.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(and why yes, my husband has HUGE points to cash in with me now at any time…)

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Category: Big Life Events, Celebrations & Holidays, Erich, Life, Work, and all the Rest   Tags: ,  | 2 Comments
Ash Day
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• Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

30 years ago today… I had my first ever cancelled day of school (of the three I had from K-12th).

I don’t remember much about it. I was only five at the time, after all. I just have one of those snippet moments that was so strange and so surreal that sometimes I’ve wondered if I imagine it. The bell jar I had in my bedroom as a kid – that’s probably still in a box among my old things somewhere in Montana – affirms the memory though.

That was the day I watched my dad shovel ash on the driveway.

30 years ago today, Mount Saint Helens erupted in Washington. A pretty mountain full of cabins and hiking trails and pretty lakes – all destroyed within minutes. In the immediate region of the mountain, 57 people died, some of their bodies never recovered.

In eastern Washington, the day became night.

In Billings, Montana – ash fell like snow.

Mount Saint Helens was the first big world event that I was aware of as a kid. I was fascinated by it – by the lake that was rumored to be so toxic that you would die going in it (Spirit Lake, as I found out years later), by the images of trees sprawled like matchsticks on a bed of ash, in angles that showed the direction of every roll of the deadly ash… and by the strange, moonlike landscape that was left behind.

30 years ago – and I still remember my dad with the snowshovel, a bandana over his nose and mouth, warning me not to come out from the protection of the garage.

The rest of the memory has long since drifted away like the ash.

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Regional Speech Meme
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• Saturday, May 01st, 2010

Age: 35

Where you grew up: South-central Montana

Qualification: I’ve lived in New England for 17 years. It has changed my speech, so I’ll be putting currents in parenthesis.

1. A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks: Creek, pronounced crik. (now with a long e).

2. What the thing you push around the grocery store is called: Cart

3. A metal container to carry a meal in: Lunch box

4. The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in: Skillet

5. The piece of furniture that seats three people: Couch or sofa, interchangeably.

6. The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof: Gutter

7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening: Porch (now if it’s screened in, it’s also called a patio or florida room)

8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages: Pop. (now soda, but it still comes out of a pop machine)

9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup: Pancake (if flour-based), (now also johnnycake if corn-meal)

10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself: Sub or hoagie (now just sub)

11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach: Swim shorts

12. Shoes worn for sports: Sneakers.

13. Putting a room in order: Cleaning or tidying up.

14. A flying insect that glows in the dark: Firefly

15. The little insect that curls up into a ball: Rollie-pollie or potato bug (interchangeably)

16. The children’s playground equipment where one kid sits on one side and goes up while the other sits on the other side and goes down: See-saw

17. How do you eat your pizza: Always with my hands – point side first, crust last.

18. What’s it called when private citizens put up signs and sell their used stuff: Yard sale

19. What’s the evening meal?: Supper (now dinner gets mixed in, too – but that was always the name for a meal between lunch and supper growing up)

20. The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are: Basement (now also cellar)

21. What do you call the thing that you can get water out of to drink in public places: Water fountain (I do not, but my husband uses bubbler… sans the R, so it comes out “bubblah”)

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Sleepy Sunday updates…
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• Sunday, June 28th, 2009

Dunno why I haven’t been up to writing in my LJ these days. I suppose it’s just life keeping me busy. *shrug*

Support Stacie progress has been updated. I’m starting to feel much, much better about my progress: http://measi.livejournal.com/530017.html

I’ve been making a lot more progress for wiggiemomsi when I write longhand these days. Most of it’s been English-in-Cyrillic lately, which seems to shut up my inner editor. I suppose the editor gives up because it does take just long enough for me to mentally translate my own writing that it’s not worth it while I’m also trying to draft.

Of course – it makes for some funky spelling mistakes as I type everything in.

heh.

Anyway, I’ve been writing in 1 hour sessions using Reiki music as my background noise. With no lyrics and no real prominent melody, it just seems to zone me into focusing on my thoughts. Three sessions of that have resulted in the problem areas in the middle getting fleshed out. The story’s taking a different direction than I thought it would. Then again, with 10,000 words to play with as a minimum, there’s a lot more room for an actual plot. :)

So a bit strange and unconventional, but I’d rather write in a weird way than stare at the screen for hours and get nothing done like I was a few weeks ago.

* ~ * ~ *

The Zero Room supposedly all checked out for transition to my provider’s new platform, but then when it switched… it all died. *sigh*

Thankfully everything’s backed up on my personal webspace here: http://measi.net/fanfiction/. So if you are saving fic, feel free to continue there. You should have no problems.

I’m going to rebuild the Zero Room site from scratch via reinstalling the eFiction software. Then I’ll attempt to transfer the database from my personal site to the Zero Room one. Planning on getting to that next weekend.

Grrr…

* ~ * ~ *

Michael Jackson’s death (like so much of his life) is a bit surreal. He was a sick man, and hopefully his soul can straighten shit out now that he’s on the other side. I loved his music, but the public profile made it difficult to comfortably listen to anything.

That said, I’ve been enjoying waking up with MTV again this weekend. They’re actually playing… videos. And I’m remembering watching Michael as a kid down in the rec room in the basement, trying to imitate all of those amazing dance moves. Such good times as a kid.

My cat is oozing over my arms… so I suppose I should stop writing and give him he attention he’s craving. *sigh*

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Protected: Every now and then you need a good laugh at yourself
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• Thursday, October 09th, 2008

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Protected: Writer’s Block: Remembering mom
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• Monday, May 12th, 2008

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Protected: Life Music
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• Tuesday, August 07th, 2007

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Protected: Childhood movie addictions
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• Friday, August 03rd, 2007

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Tuesday Memeage: Reminiscing our childhood
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• Tuesday, August 08th, 2006

This past weekend was very busy and both fun and frustration filled… but I’m a bit too sleepy at the moment. I’m also dealing with Elly thinking that I’m her dry nurse at the moment (she’s attached to my shoulder… and making a rather big wet spot where she’s trying to suckle).

Anyway… instead, I bring you… Tuesday’s Tales:

Reminiscing Our Childhood

1. What is the earliest memory you have as a child? Think far back.
My earliest is a very quick lightbulb flash moment. I was two (and change). My parents and I were in Disneyland, and we were in the Haunted Mansion. For whatever reason, my parents were allowing me to stand (rather than hold me). I remember a huge sea of legs. And then there was a gap in the people, and I saw the mantle above the fireplace. The picture of a pretty woman turned to a skeleton.

And then it stops.

For years, I didn’t believe it was real although my parents vouched that it most likely was. And then I went to Disneyland again at age 16. I stood in the front hall of the Haunted Mansion, and looked at the painting above the fireplace.

And watched that painting from memory turn into a skeleton. Damn.

2. What is a special memory you have about someone? It could be a grandparent, family friend – not including your parents – that you knew as a child.
One night when I was visiting my grandparents, I wanted to sleep up in the attic with my grandma. The attic was my mom’s old bedroom, and since no one I knew at home had an attic, it was a big adventure for me. I couldn’t have been older than seven, since that’s the year that my grandparents moved away from their house on North 10th Street.

There was a big storm that night in Easton, and lightning hit a stop sign or something just up the street– it was a tremendous sound. It scared both my grandma and I, and we both bolted downstairs. My grandpa came home a bit later to find the two of us huddling on the couch.

We laughed about it often… right up to her death.

What do you recall about them that makes the memory special?
It’s one of the few times I honestly recall seeing my grandma afraid. But at the same time, she laughed about it. I remember she always tried to make the best of situations.

3. What was a favorite game you played as a child?
Cat’s Cradle on the playground at school. It’s a blend of four-square and dodgeball.

4. What was a memorable trip that you can recall being a little kid and what did you do that makes you think about it even now?
I had so many! I really did have a lucky childhood. Every year I went somewhere. Most of my big vacations were in Hilton Head, SC. They’ve now all blended together now because we went there literally every year from ’85 to ’93. We did everything on those trips: the beach, crabbing, fishing, beach horseback riding, tennis, etc. I think my favorite two things of all of those trips were going to see Charleston (my uncle lived there at the time) and Savannah (oh, how I loved Savannah!).

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Protected: What is home?
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• Thursday, March 23rd, 2006

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Morning recess, fifth grade, on this date…
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• Friday, January 28th, 2005

Mrs. Arnold raised her hand early that morning– the sign that we were to line up to go back into the building. Whining, we all complied, running to her from all parts of the playground.

But she didn’t call us to the door. She called us to the center of the four-square lines on the “upper grades” section of Poly Drive’s playground.

It was a very bright sunny morning.

It was a relatively warm day– because I can remember the slight smell of tar from the crack seals in the blacktop.

We were all confused– we’d only been at recess a few minutes. Why were we all being called back to the building?

She told us all to gather around, because she had very sad news.

Many of us had been talking about it, thanks to the monumental flight. And our class of eight fifth graders and twenty fourth graders (minus whomever was missing that day), couldn’t say a word.

It didn’t need to be said– we all went into a long moment of silence. I remember looking at the shadows formed by our shoes and our heads upon the blacktop.

It’s the first national tragedy I remember. The Challenger had exploded.

And when I see the footage, I still remember being eleven years old, staring at that blacktop.

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